15th March 2023 – 2 Kings 20:1-11
2 Kings 20:1-11
"20 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’”2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,3 “Now, O Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, 6 and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.” 7 And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”
8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?” 9 And Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” 10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.”11 And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz."
There is a good deal for us to learn, if we will, from the story of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery. Advocates of faith healing have taken it as an evidence of the miracu- lous power that can be released by the prayer of faith, if it is earnest and vital enough, and it is certainly true that God can, and does, on occasion miraculously heal the sick and dying. The danger, however lies in the too easy assumption that is often made that it is necessarily always God's will that the sick should be healed, and that when they are not, it is a failure of faith on our part. But it is not ALWAYS God's will that sickness should be healed, as the New Testament makes clear - Paul's thorn was not removed, Timothy's stomach was not cured, and Trophimus was left behind on one critical occasion, too sick to travel on missionary service. These instances alone should make us wary of making extravagant claims about faith-healing. It is not always realised that the logical outcome of demanding that God should remove all sickness is that we should also demand that He remove all kinds of unpleasantness from our lives. In other words, we are asking Him to make our lives a bed of roses. The fact is, many of God's choicest saints are where they are today because God did not heal them. Their sickness was not removed; it was converted, and capitalised. And that is the greater thing. This has very important implications, as tomorrow's comment will show.
14th March 2023 – 2 Kings 19:35-37
2 Kings 19:35-37 “35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king…
13th March 2023 – 2 Kings 19:29-34
2 Kings 19:29-34 “29 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and…
12th March 2023 – 2 Kings 19:20-28
2 Kings 19:20-28 “20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21 This is the word that the Lord…
11th March 2023 – 2 Kings 19:8-19
2 Kings 19:8-19 “8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight…
10th March 2023 – 2 Kings 19:1-7
2 Kings 19:1-7 “19 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary,…
9th March 2023 – 2 Kings 18:13-37
2 Kings 18:13-37 “13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying,…
8th March 2023 – 2 Kings 18:9-12
2 Kings 18:9-12 “9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, 10 and at the end of three…
7th March 2023 – 2 Kings 18:1-8
2 Kings 18:1-8 “18 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years…
6th March 2023 – 2 Kings 17:24-41
2 Kings 17:24-41 “24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in…